Explosive device recovered at Clanton Middle School (updated)
Published 10:56 am Friday, February 7, 2014
An explosive device brought to Clanton Middle School by a student on Friday was recovered by police.
An explosive device brought to Clanton Middle School by a student was recovered Friday by police.
The student was taken into custody while the situation and device were investigated, according to Clanton Police.
The explosive device was made out of a “Play-Doh” container rigged with fuses and filled with pyrotechnic powder and bird shot.
There was no known attempt to use the device, nor were any threats made.
No one was injured during the incident.
Officers responded to the school at about 8:30 a.m. at the request of faculty and spoke with the student in question, who was already being held by faculty.
The school was placed on “lockdown” while officers searched for the device, which was located in possession of the student.
The device was described by police as being a “Play-Doh” can, about 1.5 inches in diameter, with three fireworks fuses inserted in a hole in the top. The container was filled with 18 grams of pyrotechnic powder and 4.2 grams of bird shot.
The student was telling other students he had an explosive device, according to a seventh-grade classmate who wished to not be identified because of a parent’s affiliation with the Chilton County Board of Education.
“We were in first period this morning and we heard that he [the student] had brought a bomb to school to sell to someone else,” the classmate said. “He showed a few of the other guys in the class the bomb which he said had several different kinds of gunpowder in it.”
According to a classmate, a school staff member entered the classroom and asked the students to remain in their seats, except the student identified as having brought the explosive, who was taken to the office.
The classmate said she was friends with the student.
“He isn’t a kid you would think would do something like this,” she said.
